Into the Unown (Pokemon Fanfiction OC)

Author's Note:

A reminder that the release schedule for the upcoming week might be a little wonky due to my real life obligations.

Also a reminder that my Patreon exist and that you can read ahead if you're feeling impatient. Current progress is up to Chapter 142 and I'll be doing daily chapters for that final stretch of Chapter 150-160 leading to the end of Part Two.

***

Going through puberty with a fully matured mind was an interesting experience. Nina wondered if there was ever a genuine teenager who had experienced puberty while being fully cognizant of the fact? Perhaps a bonafide genius? But cognitive intelligence and emotional intelligence were two different things.

Most teenagers simply rode that particular wave in ignorance, and for the better as well. Sometimes it was good to just let things happen instead of worrying too much about appearances. 

A regular teen may struggle in confusion and awkwardness at all the changes they experience, but they do so without restraint. An impossibility for Nina, since she was fully aware of when she was acting strangely or if she was in the throes of a particularly bad moodswing. It was like she wasn’t in control, her mind completely disconnected from her body. 

“The last time that I felt like this was ages ago, when I died the first time and just became Nina.” Nina recalled that it took her nearly a year to regain full control of her faculties back then. Hopefully this time would be easier.

The occasional acne and her rapidly developing figure aside, Nina found herself to be increasingly irritable these days. There were even times where she found it unreasonably difficult to get out of bed, and she had developed a preference for sleeping on the floor with Nairy for warmth and comfort. 

Her beloved partner had learned how to passively circulate Fire Type Energy while they slept purely for her sake. It really did wonders in soothing her crankiness. But no matter what she did, she simply could not shake the burdens of her physique. 

Back when she first came to this world, she had thought that she could get through this phase of her new life through sheer willpower and self control. That thought turned out to be a lie. She couldn’t resist the lethargy that plagued her. And despite consciously being aware of her sensitive disposition, she found her baser nature commandeering the reins regardless, while she wallowed in helplessness, further compounding her foul mood.

Lilian’s behaviour from the other day was especially troubling to her. The girl’s husky voice, warm breath and cool touch often plagued Nina’s mind, despite her better judgement. 

She found herself consciously avoiding the Blackthorn girl in school these days, during the rare instances that she would attend. Nina had even taken to maintaining a healthy distance from Kerry-Anne, instead of being as physical with her friend as she used to. Not even allowing herself friendly hugs or shoulder pats to avoid accidentally doing anything weird.

Nina knew what needed to be done. Her rational mind was cognizant that this was all just a physiological response, and that she didn’t actually have any sort of tangible feelings towards the girls around her. Especially not with such a huge disparity in mental age.

It was thankful then that she still didn’t find boys to be attractive, especially given how brash and immature even the best of them tended to be in her age group. Otherwise, she risked being overwhelmed by all the confusion.

The solution was simple. But the problem was, despite her intimate familiarity with the male anatomy from her past life, Nina hadn’t exactly explored her new gender in that sort of way just yet. And in truth, her inner Miles was just uncomfortable with the idea.

The two identities, past and present have largely melded together by this point. Miles was Nina and Nina was Miles. But it still didn’t change the fact that an adult mind toying with a child’s body remained an uncomfortable fact. The lack of privacy with all of Nina’s Pokemon being around her all the time didn’t help either.

That said, her Pokemon were a great source of comfort in these trying times. Especially Nairy, who shared a deep and inexplicable bond with her, and Espy, whose empathic abilities could sense the struggles that Nina was dealing with.

They each helped her to cope in one way or another; Nairy would always chime in with just the right amount of physical affection and silly shenanigans to cheer Nina up, while Espy would help wake Nina in the mornings with gentle prods to her mind whenever she was feeling lethargic. Her Pokemon even assisted with chores, and told Brucey and Sir Clodington off whenever one of them was being particularly annoying. All of which was greatly appreciated.

The one silver lining in all of this was that Nina’s menstrual cycle hadn’t begun yet. Though it was only a matter of time. 

The girl had already done extensive research on the matter in preparation. Even seeking advice from her mother and grandmother in her usual fish-out-of-water transmigrator sort of way by grilling them with lots of hyper specific and pedantic questions. Way more so than what a girl her age would reasonably inquire about.

But she wanted to be sure, weird looks be damned. This was something that she would have to deal with for the rest of her new life after all. And her adult mind meant that she could not bear the embarrassment of just fumbling her way through and figuring things out as she went.

“Nina, are you okay?”

Nina found herself snapped out of her reverie by Kerry, who was peering up at her lowered head with a concerned look on her face. “I err… I’m fine. Just thinking about… stuff. Haha.” Nina laughed awkwardly as she blurted out her flimsy excuse to assuage her friend.

Lilian was not present with them today, and after Justin left on his journey, it was mostly just the two girls having lunch together these days. 

Nina suppressed the bout of wistfulness she felt welling from her chest. She had to admit, it did feel lonely with just Kerry around, not that the girl was bad company or anything. It was just that the two of them weren’t exactly the most proficient in banter.

That role usually fell to Justin, who really helped to liven up their friend group with his rambunctiousness. The boy also served as the butt of their jokes a lot of the time with his careless behaviour and inconsiderate remarks. Without him around, things were just quieter.

It really was funny how these things worked. When Justin was still around, Nina and Kerry would often complain about how annoying the boy was out of earshot. But now, the two girls found themselves inexplicably missing his absence.

“You’ve been zoning out a lot lately, Nins. Are you feeling sick? It’s not good to push yourself too hard you know? How about you come with me to the nurse’s office later?” Kerry continued, her tone gentle but firm, filled with concern for her friend.

Nina chuckled and dismissed her friend’s worries with a wave. “It’s alright… I was just thinking… Maybe it’s time for me to go on my journey soon…”

Kerry frowned at her friend’s sudden declaration, feeling a bitter taste at the base of her tongue. “What made you suddenly think that? Is it because of Justin?” She asked, trying hard to hide the sadness in her voice. A journey was a very personal matter after all, and it wasn’t right for anyone to interfere with someone's decision to embark on one.

“You told me before that you’d wait until after your second year to journey out right?” The young Joy continued.

Nina nodded. That was indeed the case. But if she was being honest, school life in the Pokemon world was a lot duller than she had initially anticipated. Outside of gym class and the Pokemon sciences, the rest of the subjects were pretty much in line with that of Miles’s world, but in a slightly different flavor.

Nina had expected to be challenged, or at least intrigued somewhat by trainer school. And while the facilities were nice, and she was thankful to have so many fortunate encounters during her time here, it was still falling short of her expectations.

It was especially disappointing that she had to hold herself back from participating in some of the events that the school would hold from time to time — most of them being battle tournaments — since she was worried that it might be unfair to the other fledgeling trainers in her year.

Of course, there were tournaments that weren’t age-gated. But most of the time, she preferred to volunteer for behind the scenes work, often at the urging of Kerry who desired her company. Trainer school kids were too hyperactive for menial labour in most cases.

It couldn’t be helped then that she was starting to feel a little antsy at her stagnation. That incident a while back with the three Legendary Pokemons of Hoenn also served as a reminder to Nina that this wasn’t some video game, and that the world would keep on spinning with or without her, further infusing her with an added sense of urgency.

“I don’t know what I can even do in the larger scope of things. But Mew must have given me this stupid rock for a reason…” Then there was the matter of Futaba’s request, which Nina had almost forgotten at this point. She could only hope that the old lady was still hanging in there.

“I’m not going to leave right away. The new season has already started, and I did promise Principal Niko that I’ll represent the school in the inter school meet this year.” Nina replied, after finally getting her mind in order. 

“It’s just something that I’ve been considering lately. And no, it doesn’t have anything to do with Justin. I’m just feeling a little impatient these days.” Nina’s recent mood swings and wayward thoughts did not help matters either. If anything, they only serve to fuel this irrational sense of anxiety that she was struggling with.

“What about you, Kerry?” Nina asked in return. “Are you going to stick with school all the way, or will you go out on a journey at some point?” Nina didn’t even know if journeys were a thing with the Joy clan. She couldn’t recall if she ever saw any of them participating in the Indigo Conference before.

Kerry averted her gaze, unwilling to reveal the storm brewing inside of her. Even after a whole year of trainer school, she hadn’t been able to make many friends outside of her lunch crew. The girl was simply too skeptical of the intentions of most of the kids who approached her.

Nina had laughed at Kerry at one point, saying that most kids their age were too dumb to engage in subtle politicking, and that she shouldn’t worry too much. But Kerry was still wary, she couldn’t claim to be as insightful as her inordinately mature friend.

“I’ll go on my journey at some point, there’s no customs or rules against it,” Kerry responded. “I just want to wait for Polly to evolve first before going. Journeying without a battler is considerably dangerous.”

Nina hummed in consideration. “Poliwags evolve fairly quickly so that shouldn’t be much of an issue. Outside of that… You could come with me, you know? If you don’t mind going through the Gym circuit that is.” Travelling alone was awfully dull, and having an apprentice nurse around was convenient in many ways.

Kerry lit up at the proposal. “Really? You don’t mind me tagging along?”

Nina chuckled. “Yup! You’re an apprentice nurse, so it’s not like you’ll be deadweight or anything,” assured the girl. “But I do have to warn you, I might take a lot of detours to explore places. So we’ll probably end up spending a lot of time away from civilization.”

The young Joy shook her head in indifference. “That’s fine. I think I prefer to go out and see more of the world instead of going from city to city anyway.” 

There would be plenty of time for civilization when Kerry eventually became a full time nurse. If anything, it’d be hard for her to step away from work once she started, so this was the only time where she could journey around freely like this.

Nina let out a joyful cheer. “Yay! That’s settled then — we’ll set off after summer break. In the meantime, let’s aim to evolve Polly and find you a third Pokemon.” 

A year and a half should be more than enough time for Nina to complete her Gym circuit and compete well enough in the conference. There was still a much wider world out there waiting for her to explore, so no point dallying.

Kerry cheered as well. Feeling ecstatic at the prospect of going on a journey with a friend — a lifelong dream of hers. In all honesty, the young Joy was beginning to lose hope after realizing how abysmal her social skills were. She felt glad that she made the decision to sit next to Nina during the start of school. 

The intimidating young Gym Trainer had inadvertently acted as a bulwark to shield her against some of their more frivolous classmates. Even helping to filter out the sincerity of some of the other kids that she did end up befriending through the course of her various volunteer work.

“There’s going to be a small tournament next week being hosted by one of the teachers. Do you think I should join?” Kerry asked, feeling impatient to get started on one of the goals that Nina set out for her.

The other girl laughed at her eagerness and gave her a gentle pat on the back. “We’ll see… For now, let’s get at least one proper battle under your belt first.” Polly engaged in casual spars on occasion, but she had not participated in a proper battle just yet.

“It just so happens, Sir Clodington needs some battle experience as well — under proper League rules and not brawls in the wild.” Nina continued as they spent the rest of their lunch break talking about all the various locations that they wanted to visit during their travels.